March 31, 2019

Will Arizona Be the next State With a Spaceport? (Source: Chamber News)
Arizona is poised to be a leader in a new American space race, with aerospace and defense experts advocating for a new ‘spaceport’ in the state. “Arizona does have a major play in this, and we should jump in with both feet,” said Julie Engel, president and CEO of the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation (GYEDC). “We’re on the middle-beginning of this industry sector, especially in the small [satellites], and the industry is projected to grow so rapidly, and if we get in now we’re going to grow with it.”

For the first time since 1972, the United States is racing its competitors — namely Russia and China — to the moon and beyond. The U.S. government aims to have astronauts on the moon again by 2024, Vice President Mike Pence announced Tuesday. Spaceports have already been established in California, New Mexico and Florida, and Houston and Denver have each announced plans for their own. These facilities have the infrastructure and technology to launch spacecraft into orbit for exploration, defense and commercial travel.

The Arizona Spaceport Alliance, a nonprofit organization founded by Karyn MacVean and Benjamin Hernandez, is focused on exploring the potential benefits — or drawbacks — of building a spaceport in Arizona. MacVean and Hernandez travel the state speaking with legislators and the public about what a spaceport would mean and how it might impact the state, and the group recommends experts for governments or authorities that want more information. (3/28)

NASA Is Working With Blue Origin on a Lunar Lander (Source: IEEE Spectrum)
When U.S. vice president Mike Pence announced on Tuesday that American astronauts would return to the moon within five years “by any means necessary,” two companies working to transport astronauts to orbit and beyond were quick to raise their hands. SpaceX boss Elon Musk tweeted that its new Starship rocket could meet the deadline, writing that it is “for sure worth giving it our best shot!”

Lockheed Martin, which is developing the Orion spacecraft that will ride atop NASA’s massive Space Launch System, wrote, “With the right level of commitment, urgency and resources, humans could walk on the surface by 2024.” But a third commercial space company has already been working quietly with NASA on technologies to bring American robots (if not yet humans) back to the moon. In October, NASA signed a previously unreported Space Act Agreement “for the purpose of collaboration with Blue Origin to advance medium-to-large commercial lunar surface lander systems.”

Under the agreement, Blue Origin promised to pay NASA nearly US $50,000 to “leverage the unique capabilities, expertise, and knowledge of NASA in multiple technology areas to help to optimally design and develop such capabilities for both NASA and commercial missions.” (3/27)

HASC Chairman Bolsters Blue Origin’s Argument to Delay Launch Competition (Source: Defense News)
As the Air Force prepares to start the second phase of its launch services competition, it is looking increasingly unlikely that it will heed Blue Origin’s call to delay the contract award, currently slated to occur in early 2020. But the head of the House Armed Services Committee is pushing back on that course of action, telling Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson in a March 28 letter that the service should take time to reassess its current plan — and hinting that there could be language in the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill that addresses the launch service procurement program. (3/29)

Challenges Ahead for the Satellite Startup Industry (Source: Fortune)
Shattering the cost of putting satellites in orbit has allowed dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of new startups to attract funding and go into business, kicking off a new space race. Van Espahbodi, managing partner of the Starburst Aerospace Accelerator funding many of those startups, may not have realized the irony of his statement that “ten years ago there would have been executives from Lockheed and Boeing in this room.” (It was only three, Van.)

But Espahbodi also sounded another common refrain from the 2019 edition of the conference, one that marks the second shift from 2016. While back then startups were still trying to figure out how to woo Silicon Valley, now it seems they may have succeeded too well. Espahbodi worried that too much money may have flowed into too many startups all chasing the same few satellite opportunities. “There’s lots of not so smart money out there,” he quipped. (3/29)

Jeff Bezos Wants to Take His Fellow Billionaires to Space with Blue Origin (Source: C/Net)
Jeff Bezos has done it. Elon Musk has done it. In fact, if you're a billionaire who hasn't started a space company you're officially behind the times. While SpaceX might have the name recognition (shooting a mannequin-driven car into space will do that for a brand), Blue Origin is nipping at its heels when it comes to the space race. And the two have a lot in common. Namely, eccentric billionaire founders who want to build a future for humanity far away from the confines of planet Earth. Click here. (3/29)

Japan, US to Collaborate on Space Surveillance (Source: Mainichi)
The governments of Japan and the United States are planning to link up the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) systems of Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and the U.S. military from fiscal 2023 to share real-time information on such things as third-country satellites and space debris, it has been learned. In the future, the two countries hope to build a collaborative arrangement of mutual protection from potential attacks by other countries' satellites.

Beefing up bilateral cooperation in space is up for discussion and confirmation at the two-plus-two talks between the diplomatic and defense officials of Japan and the U.S. that are to be held in Washington in April. Japan's space surveillance, which entails monitoring debris and suspicious satellites, is conducted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) using satellites orbiting 200 to 1,000 kilometers above Earth. (3/30)

UK Space Company Scisys, Fearing Brexit, Becomes Irish (Source: Space News)
Scisys Group, a formerly British company involved in the European Union’s Galileo satellite program, says its change of headquarters from Chippenham, England, to Dublin, Ireland, was immediately positive for its space business. Scisys is a subcontractor to Thales Alenia Space France and Spain’s GMV on the ground segment of the Galileo navigation satellite system. The United Kingdom’s ongoing exit from the European Union jeopardized Scisys’ business related to Galileo and other European Union programs such as the Copernicus environmental monitoring satellites. (3/29)

Lunar Laundromat: Russian Hi-Tech Firm to Create First Orbital Washing Machine (Source: TASS)
Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation has started developing the first washing machine to clean clothes in outer space, the company’s press office said on its YouTube page on Friday. "The Energia Space Rocket Corporation has started developing a special space washing machine for future lunar expeditions and other inter-planetary spaceships," the company announced.

In 2017, Energia specialists put forward the idea to develop an orbital washing machine in the corporate journal "Space Hardware and Technology". They proposed treating outfits in a special machine with the help of carbon dioxide, which cosmonauts would exhale. In the specialists’ estimates, at the temperature of 31 degrees Celsius (87.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and the pressure of 74 atmospheres, the carbon dioxide will transform into a liquid aggregate state to clean the crews’ spacesuits. (3/29)